HOW THEY DID IT

REAL-WORLD ADVICE
FROM TODAYS MOST
SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS

ROBERT JORDAN

IMPORTANT

To begin Please save this

workbook to your desktop or
in another location
.

HOW THEY DID IT

Table of Contents

How to Use This Interactive Workbook .................................................2

Bob Jordan Million-Dollar Insights.....................................................3
Howard Tullman The Five Keys to the Future ....................................8
Jim Dolan The Five Keys to Investor Success ...................................12
Dane Miller Success Is in Empowering Your People ..........................16
Raj Soin Secrets to Successful Team Building....................................20
Steve Shank The Three Paths of Disruptive Innovation......................24
Bonnie Baskin The Three Building Blocks to Becoming
a Successful Entrepreneur.......................................................................28
Brian Sullivan Three Rules for Successful Product Development ......31
Mark Tebbe - Developing a Strong Corporate Strategy ........................35
Dave Becker Turning Vision into Business .........................................39
Joe Mansueto The Four Keys to Advanced Entrepreneurship.............42
Robert Jordan Lessons from Visionary Leaders .................................46
Enhance Your Audio-Learning Library with
These Great Titles from Nightingale-Conant! ........................................49

HOW THEY DID IT

How to Use This Interactive Workbook
How can you get the most out of this interactive workbook? Research has shown that the
more ways you interact with learning material, the deeper your learning will be.
Nightingale-Conant has created a cutting-edge learning system that involves listening to the
audio, reading the ideas in the workbook, and writing your ideas and thoughts down.
In fact, this workbook is designed so that you can fill in your answers right inside this
document. By the end, youll have your own personal success system.
For each session, we recommend the following:

Preview the section of the workbook that corresponds with the audio session,
paying particular attention to the exercises.
Listen to the audio session at least once.
Complete the exercises right in this workbook.

In addition to the exercises and questions, weve created a special section of the workbook
called How Ill Do It. This is a space for you to write down the creative inspiration you get
when listening to the program. First, youll learn How They Did It, and then youll discover
how YOU can do it too!
Dont just listen to this program devour it! Strategies dont work unless you use them.
Test and use the strategies that make sense to you, consistently, over time until they
become habits. Listen to the program more than once. Listen for the key ideas that you can
use to impact your attitudes, actions, and results. True change takes focus and repetition.

Lets get started!

HOW THEY DID IT

Bob Jordan Million-Dollar Insights
Welcome to How They Did It, a very special program from Nightingale-Conant designed for
entrepreneurs, company founders, and leaders. This program is a series of 10 interviews with
incredible entrepreneurs: Howard Tullman, Jim Dolan, Dane Miller, Raj Soin, Steve Shank,
Bonnie Baskin, Brian Sullivan, Dave Becker, Mark Tebbe, and Joe Mansueto. These 10
founders started from nothing, and they have collectively created $18 billion in value and
tens of thousands of jobs. And theyve also created products that touch our everyday lives.
But theyre not names that youve known. They dont live in our memory yet.
Why look at entrepreneurs? Why look at entrepreneurship? There is no problem that is
beyond the genius of women and men to solve.
There are huge problems in the world. We are coming out of a recession that is second
only to the Great Depression; there are diseases that need to be cured; there are shortages
worldwide. Look, for example, at the shortage of water. Planet Earth is not making
any more water, and so the solution to that kind of shortage, its got to come from us.
Entrepreneurs can solve these kinds of problems. You give people freedom, you give them
the ability to create companies, to create products and services, and we can take on any kind
of challenge.
In a lot of cases, we hear about the success of a company and we only see the end result
of success. We have no idea what the company went through to get there. What kinds
of challenges did they have along the way? How did they do it?
Thats what this program is for. We want to show you how these success stories REALLY did
it. These arent celebrities. They arent from some special city. These are regular people
just like you who built something special. They didnt inherit their businesses they
started from scratch. They started with simple ideas, and from those ideas, big things
eventually came around. They persevered through obstacles and grew their businesses to a
size that is at least $100 million.
Before we get started, though, lets look at the 10 top tips for being a successful entrepreneur.
1. Launch is always a leap. In each of these cases, there was a moment in time when
the entrepreneur had to make a decision to take the leap. In some cases it meant
quitting a job without any guarantee of success. Most of us try to avoid failing,
but these successful entrepreneurs took a leap of faith.

HOW THEY DID IT

2. Your idea is wrong. Usually the first idea the entrepreneurs had wasnt the winning
idea. They had to experiment and listen intensely to customers to develop the winning
products and strategies.
3. You have to look again. Successful entrepreneurs are relentlessly curious. You have
to look for the opportunities and then keep looking.
4. Boredom can be a blessing. If an entrepreneur is bored, he or she has the time to think
creatively. Use it to your advantage.
5. Success is never a solo act. All of these entrepreneurs say that their success did not
come from them alone. Success only comes from the formation of powerful teams and
partnerships.
6. Attitude trumps skill. More important than being skilled is having a burning desire
to be in the game. And what trumps attitude is need. By relentlessly exploring what
customers have to have, they were able to dream up products and services and develop
a passion for them. THEN they developed the skills they needed.
7. You have to strike out more, not less. Thomas Edison never gave up; he struck out
more times than the average person would ever tolerate. A lot of people think that if we
try something and it doesnt work that it never will work and they give up. Successful
entrepreneurs fail MORE than the average person, not less.
8. Look in the mirror. These entrepreneurs looked at their efforts, what they were doing,
what they could be doing better. If you know yourself and what youre good and what
youre not, youll know who to partner with to complete the skill set.
9. Iterate, execute, and repeat. This means that in order to succeed, you need to be able
to look at problems differently than most people. These entrepreneurs werent cynical;
they were curious. How can we solve this? Instead of This cant be solved.
10. Let your customers co-create. We live in a new world. You cant just put a product
out and expect your customers to buy it. Instead, the reference from you customers
friends who may be saying something, Tweeting it, making some kind of mention on
Facebook, blogging about it, thats far more important to them than whether to not they
see a television advertisement for something. While in that same light, what these
founders have discovered is that your customers become co-creators in what you are
doing as a fascinating new kind of world in which to operate.

HOW THEY DID IT

There is incredible power in asking
successful people how they did it.

YOUR TURN
What kinds of problems do you see in the world that bother you?

Have you ever thought about what should be done to solve these problems?

Describe a time when you took a leap of faith. How did it turn out?

What do you do if your first idea doesnt succeed? What is your attitude?

How comfortable are you with failure?

HOW THEY DID IT

What are your personal strengths and weaknesses?

HOW THEY DID IT

HOW ILL DO IT
In the following space, write down any creative ideas or inspirations you got from listening
to this session.

If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon,

or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor,
though he builds his house in the woods,
the world will make a beaten path to his door.
attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson

HOW THEY DID IT

Howard Tullman The Five Keys to the Future
Howard Tullman is the founder of Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy and
chairman/CEO of HYPR>BOX, LLC. Prior to Flashpoint, Howard founded a number of
companies, including Experiencia, Inc.; Tunes.com, which sold for $135 million; and
Certified Collateral Corporation, which he took public. He was chairman of Cobalt Group,
acquired by ADP in 2010 for $400 million. In addition to founding companies, Howard is
credited with the turnaround of Kendall College, which faced liquidation. Howard moved the
college into a new facility and engineered the sale to Laureate University. He is a trustee of
WTTW and of the New York Academy of Art, and he serves as an adjunct professor at
Northwesterns Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

The Perspiration Principle

You dont get what you wish for; you get what you work for
Five Perspiration Principles
These five principles are going to be the foundation of how the world changes over the next
10 years.
Key #1 Hyper-personalization
Google is the rearview mirror that looks at what youve done in the past and tries to compute
some information about where youre headed. Facebook, on the other hand, gets the USERS
to tell exactly what theyre interested in, what they want, what their friends are interested in.
We never imagined that we could have this much personal information about people.
We have more data and more precise information, and that permits us to target individuals in
a finer and more highly precise fashion than we ever had before.
Key #2 Know before you go
Not only to we have more precise targets, but we also have unbelievable tools for measuring.
This is accountability in measurement. We dont have to rely on someone else to find out the
specific data, measurements, and expenditures. Because so much data are available instantly
and to almost anyone, its going to be cheaper to market. It will be more effective, and well
have conversion and interaction rates that are surprising.

HOW THEY DID IT

Key #3 Constant Connectivity
The reality of the world we live in today is that as we become more connected, we combine
social with mobile and get mocial. In other words, we are going to need every bit of
information, all the tools available, and social networking, and we want it available in real
time.
Real-time, constantly available tools permit us to make decisions, to consult our peers, to
have our location and places tell us information thats relevant to us. The fact that were
constantly connected is going to drive everything that goes on. And, its going from active
to passive. Software is being developed that automates the connectivity.
Key #4 Expanded Value Exchange
Value exchange is what drives everything. Any time you save someone time or money or
cost, or increase their productivity those used to be the fundamental equations that would
require them to connect and to invest. But now, with the Internet and social media, there are
two more ways that value is exchanged.
There are new forms of currency. A currency is a collection of accomplishments. A currency
is check-ins. A currency is credit. A currency is game points or levels within games. These
become status level among friends.
Status has become an astonishing driver. People DO care about badges and numbers of
friends, and contacts and levels are not just ways of keeping score but have to do with how
we feel about ourselves and how we publish ourselves to the world.
The second is risk avoidance. We have tools to keep us from making wrong decisions. For
example, you can now scan a barcode and get instant reviews or competitive pricing in real
time. Constant connectivity is allowing consumers to avoid risk, be smarter, and make
independent decisions.
Key #5 Low Barriers to Entry, High Barriers to Success
People are more easily able to enter new markets, create new products, and bring things to
market. This is because its so much easier now to develop strategies for marketing, sales,
and infrastructure where the world does the work for you. People costs, equipment costs, and
capital costs are changing dramatically. Outsourcing is not only acceptable, its a preferred

HOW THEY DID IT

way of doing business. However, the barriers to success are also high because there are now
so many more people doing the same thing.
The people who really understand these tools and how to use them will discover that they can
get their idea to market, they can iterate their idea with levels of feedback that never existed
before, they dont have to bet the farm, and if they understand the process of failing fast
which is really a doctrine of opportunity cost and of interaction which is the constant
success of approximation and improvement as you move toward a goal then they
understand that thats what it takes to be successful today.
Technology will change, but people skills wont.

YOUR TURN
How can you use the five keys to change your existing business?

What kinds of new opportunities can you see from the five keys that can help you launch
new businesses, products, and services?

10

HOW THEY DID IT

HOW ILL DO IT
In the following space, write down any creative ideas or inspirations you got from listening
to this session.

11

HOW THEY DID IT

Jim Dolan The Five Keys to Investor Success
Jim Dolan is the founder of The Dolan Company, which he has guided through a number of
business launches and acquisitions to an IPO in 2007. The Dolan Company now operates in
25 states, has 53 product lines, and employs 2,000 people. Previously Jim was executive vice
president of the Jordan Group, Inc., a New Yorkbased investment bank specializing in
media. Trained as a journalist, he worked for News Corporation, the Sun-Times Company,
and Centel Corp.
Three Takeaways from Jim Dolans Business Experience
1. Listen to your customers. Really listen to them; dont assume that youre listening.
2. Look at what the asset is that you really have. It might not be what you think it is.
3. Question the rules. Dont break them, but see if you can play outside them.
Everybody is an investor.
The Five Keys to Investor Success
1. Always have a hot stand-by.
Make choices for yourself. The person with more choices will win in negotiation, will have
a better, stronger, deeper strategy. A lot of companies dont plan ahead and dont do the work
in advance, so when they most need choices, they have fewest choices to make. When you
have more investors lined up at the door wanting in, you have choices. So build that in for
yourself. Take the extra step, make that extra call, keep those people current. Its a ton of
work. Its not easy.
2. Treat your investors like customers.
Its easy to think about what problem youre solving for your customers. But dont forget
that your investors are stakeholders too. Most investors think about the short-term. Theyre
already thinking about how to get their money back. As an entrepreneur, you have to respect
that and treat them like customers. And what does that mean? You listen to them, you
understand their needs, and you factor those needs into your strategy. Just like you are with
your customer customers, your investor customers have the same needs. If you align
yourself with them from the very beginning and youre open with them about that, its better
for everybody.

12

HOW THEY DID IT

3. You can never overcommunicate.
What does the investor want? Whats the problem youre solving for that investor when the
investment is made? Is the problem to show progress? Is the problem to make money shortterm, to make money long-term? What is the problem? So the more you listen and the more
you understand that, the more you can deal with the investor in a way that works over the
long term.
Investors want lots of information, usually more than you want to give them. They want
frequent progress reports; they want a sense of being consulted. Whether or not you really
take their advice is not the point.
You can never overcommunicate. There are many ways to communicate. You should use
them all. You should call them, you should go see them, you should understand really,
really listen to them understand what their needs and their strategies are so that your
communication matches that.
4. Give your investors choices.
Private company investors often can feel trapped, may even not invest in the company for
fear of being trapped. Help them avoid that by making sure that they can rely upon you to,
in effect, make a private market. You can help bring in new investors to buy them out when
necessary and when appropriate. Thats a great relief to private company investors and likely
keep them in longer and maybe make them come in the first time when they wouldnt have
otherwise.
5. Always do one more thing.
Always do one more call, one more model, just do one more thing. Even at the end of the
day, everybodys exhausted, lets make one more call to investors. When you think you have
the money raised, make one more call anyway. Overraise, overfund. Dont take the money
from everybody, but make more people interested than you think you need.

13

HOW THEY DID IT

YOUR TURN
What systems do you have in place to listen to your customers?

What asset do you really have? Is there another one you might not be seeing?

Are there any rules youve been blindly following that could be questioned?

14

HOW THEY DID IT

HOW ILL DO IT
In the following space, write down any creative ideas or inspirations you got from listening
to this session.

Good judgment comes from experience,

and experience comes from bad judgment.

15

HOW THEY DID IT

Dane Miller Success Is in Empowering Your People
Dane Miller is the co-founder of Biomet, an orthopedics medical devices company, which
grew from $17,000 in sales its first year to annual sales exceeding $2.7 billion. The company
had its first public offering in 1982 and was taken private in 2007 for $11.4 billion. Dane
began his biomedical engineering career at Zimmer USA in Warsaw, Indiana, moved to
California, and later returned to Warsaw to launch and lead Biomet as president and CEO.
Two Ways to Measure Drive in an Entrepreneur
1. If you dont have enough confidence in your product to use it yourself, youd better
find something else to do.
2. Hands-on is the right management style.
Advice for Entrepreneurs
Be ready to dedicate your life to success, because if youre not 100%, maybe 150% behind
it and thats not for a year or two, it may be five years, may be 10 years you wont
achieve success. This is going to become your life. Only you can decide when youve
turned the corner, and at that point, you can have your life back.
In the early stages of a business, you need to be able to differentiate between being a
company and being a development project. At first, deploy your capital in things that will
produce a result. Theres no use having a director or manager of sales if you dont have a
sales force. Be prepared to be your own cheerleader and to make your own sales. Get your
hands dirty, figure out how you get it done, and then hire someone and teach him or her how
to get it done.
You need to have a Plan B that is rational and satisfying from a career standpoint. This way
if you stumble and fall, you have somewhere else to go.
Bloom where youre planted. You can do what you want to do right from where you are.
The real future of a company isnt on the balance sheet or P&L statement; its the people and
how you create an environment where people can do their best work. Sometimes it means
just getting out of their way.

16

HOW THEY DID IT

Three People Management Tips
1. Hire good people, give them room, and get out of their way.
2. Retain quality people.
3. Give everyone in the company a sense of ownership.

YOUR TURN
How confident are you in your product or service? Are you willing to use it yourself?

How hands-on are you? Are you willing to get in there and do the work yourself?

Is your life set up so that you can dedicate 100% of your time and energy to the success of
the business for several years? How will you balance that with your family and personal
needs?

Is your business a company or a development project? Are you spending capital accordingly?

17

HOW THEY DID IT

Whats your Plan B?

18

HOW THEY DID IT

HOW ILL DO IT
In the following space, write down any creative ideas or inspirations you got from listening
to this session.

19

HOW THEY DID IT

Raj Soin Secrets to Successful Team Building
Raj Soin and his wife Indu founded Modern Technologies Corporation (MTC), a provider of
engineering, management, and technical services. They brought the company to an IPO in
2002 and $500 million in revenue before being acquired by BAE for $425 million. Raj owns a
number of companies involved in manufacturing, private equity investments, and real estate
development.
I have never seen a business fail.
I have seen management fail.
Rajs Enduring Lessons of Success
To do any job, especially in services, you need people to do it. Having the right people,
motivated and focused to get the job done, makes the difference. We individuals can create
ideas, we can provide environment, but to grow to any size, you need lot of people getting
the work done. And theyre the ones who are coming in contact with the customer. Youve
got to have people who are very motivated to get your job done right.
Before you demand loyalty, you have to be loyal to your people. Its a two-way street. If
youre loyal, then you will end up with people who are very loyal to you.
A problem is an opportunity for people to differentiate themselves. Whenever most people
encounter a problem, they tend to back off. But if you can solve the problem, you can get
ahead of your competition.
Look for people with the right attitude. It doesnt matter if someone is a high school graduate
or a PhD, if someone has the right attitude and are success-oriented, they will work with you
hand in glove to solve a problem.
You can tell someone doesnt have the right attitude when the person starts talking about all
the problems he or she is facing. A person with the right attitude will walk in and say, This
is the situation Im on, and these are my solutions. Do you have some other ideas?
Pick a team that is agile and willing to adapt and change. Technology is changing so fast that
by the time you get to the end goal, the world has moved on you. You need a team to be able
to work on the situation the way its happening now, not the way you planned it.

20

HOW THEY DID IT

When youre hiring people, dont focus on their resume or bio, but on how they handle
themselves. If their terminology has more of a self focus, then they probably arent a good
fit for a team. Do they talk about how they worked with others to get something done? Thats
the right attitude to building a team.
When the team hits a wall and isnt making any progress, refocus and work around it.
Usually, we get so focused on the effect of the problem and the results that we dont look at
the root cause. Instead, refocus and work around the problem.
In team building, set a vision, but never set the process. Let the members of the team come
up with the process and build the roadmap to further the vision. That will bring the solution.
Most importantly, you have to stay realistic. Never believe that your plan is foolproof.

YOUR TURN
How do you show your loyalty to your people? How has this been reciprocated?

When has a problem become an opportunity to differentiate yourself from the competition?
Are you facing such a problem now?

Who on your team has the right attitude? How do they demonstrate it?

21

HOW THEY DID IT

Have you had the experience of refocusing and working around a problem? Write that down
in the following space:

Is there a time when you set the vision for an end result and let the team develop the strategy
to get there? Describe it here:

22

HOW THEY DID IT

HOW ILL DO IT
In the following space, write down any creative ideas or inspirations you got from listening
to this session.

23

HOW THEY DID IT

Steve Shank The Three Paths of Disruptive Innovation
Stephen Shank is the founder of Capella University, which he took from inception in 1991 to
IPO in 2006 as one of the first online education platforms in the world. Capella now serves
35,000 students from all 50 states and 59 countries. Prior to founding Capella, Steve was
CEO of Tonka Corporation.
Key Lessons from Capella University
There is a difference between a technology business and a business that uses technology.
A technology business is about bringing a new technology to market. But, there are
businesses that use cutting-edge technology, but the core business model is not about the
technology. Its about something else. You need to understand whether youre in the
technology business or in a business that uses technology.
You cannot target everyone.
Choose the path of least resistance and choose a market where you have the greatest chance
of succeeding. There are opportunities that your competitors arent pursuing. They dont care
about them. Find them, target them, and youll have a better chance of success.
A lot of entrepreneurs have a conservative streak.
Theres an image of an entrepreneur as a maverick. Actually, successful entrepreneurs have
a conservative streak. They understand that resources are limited, and they dont want to lose
them. Make sure that your value proposition is such that you will not lose money.
You have to reinvent your value proposition as the environment changes.
What worked for you in the past wont work as the environment changes. Your value
proposition needs to change as the environment changes.
You have to have a plan as to how you get through to the point of investment viability.
This means having a solid operating and financial model to get outside investors. If you dont
have a plan for profitability, you wont be able to attract investors. Planning is key.

24

HOW THEY DID IT

Two Types of New Ventures
1. A venture that had incremental development using traditional business and operating
models that are already established in the market. This might mean opening up a new
market, such as a geographical market or a target market.
2. A venture that is innovative almost to the point of disruptive innovation.
Every dominant market player has built a business model
on a set of assumptions about how the world operates.
The world pretty much doesnt operate like that now.
This is a time of tremendous opportunity to rethink things.
The Three Essential Components of Disruptive Innovation
1. Look at the existing companies in the industry and how they are treating the
problem/audience.
2. Look at the experience the customer has. Its not always about implementing a new
technology.
3. Bring the customers into the value creation process. Let them co-develop and co-create
value. This also means soliciting feedback so that youll know when youre off track.
Four Ways to Find Disruptive Opportunities
There are four ways to find disruptive opportunities where you can change how the game
is played.
1.
2.
3.
4.

New Technology
Lower Price
New Customer Experience
Convenience

25

HOW THEY DID IT

YOUR TURN
In your business, what are the opportunities for disruption? Whats wrong with the way
business is currently being done? Who is not being well-served?

Describe a typical customer experience in your business. Is there a way to do it differently?

How can you bring your customers into the value-creation experience? Is there a way for
them to co-create or co-develop something?

Is there a way you can make your product or service more convenient?

26

HOW THEY DID IT

HOW ILL DO IT
In the following space, write down any creative ideas or inspirations you got from listening
to this session.

Until youre the lead dog,

the view never changes.

27

HOW THEY DID IT

Bonnie Baskin The Three Building Blocks to Becoming
a Successful Entrepreneur
Bonnie Baskin is the founder of two companies, ViroMed and AppTec Laboratories. She
founded ViroMed in the early 1980s and built it from a small, independent virology lab into
a nationally recognized leader in clinical infectious diseases and industrial biosafety testing.
Following the sale of ViroMed to Laboratory Corporation of America for $40 million,
Bonnie spun off the remaining medical-device services business as the newly formed AppTec
Laboratory Services. AppTec expanded into services for biopharmaceutical manufacturing
and was sold to WuXi Pharmatech in 2008 for $163 million. Bonnie serves on a number of
private and nonprofit boards and is a past president of MNBIO, a Minnesota biotech
association.
Key Lessons from ViroMed and AppTec
A product or service is only valuable if its perceived to be valuable by your client or
customer.
You may think you have a great idea, service, or product. But its the client or customer who
ultimately decides whether or not its valuable.
You have to reinvest back into the company so that you can grow the company.
This doesnt just mean money. It also means energy, time, and everything. Double down on
what you believe in.
Have the flexibility to be able to change directions on a dime.
Thats what gives you the competitive advantage. While you have established divisions of the
company with established processes and systems, you also need to have systems in place to
encourage innovation. You have to continue to look at what opportunities there are to be able
to grow your company and to be able to enter into new opportunities that will add to the
success of the company.
Entrepreneurs are only entrepreneurs in retrospect.
At the time they start, theyre called crackpots, dreamers,
and unhireables. Its only after they become successful
that they become entrepreneurs.
Jeffrey Sudikoff

28

HOW THEY DID IT

The Three Building Blocks to Becoming a Successful Entrepreneur
1. Be early in the market.
2. Be passionate about reinvesting in the company.
3 Stay fresh.

YOUR TURN
If youre in a business, were you early into that market? Describe the market that you
entered.

If youre not yet in business, what is the market like? How much competition is there at this
point?

Are you prepared to reinvest money, time, and energy back into the company? How will you
do that?

What are the systems you have in place to stay fresh?

29

HOW THEY DID IT

HOW ILL DO IT
In the following space, write down any creative ideas or inspirations you got from listening
to this session.

30

HOW THEY DID IT

Brian Sullivan Three Rules for Successful Product
Development
Brian Sullivan is the founder of Recovery Engineering, Inc., an industry leader in the design,
manufacture, and marketing of consumer water filter systems sold under the PUR brand
name. Brian grew revenue to $200 million, took the company public in 1993, and sold to
Procter & Gamble in 1999 for $265 million. Brian went on to lead SterilMed, Inc., a
healthcare services company that reprocesses medical devices. He sold the company to
Johnson & Johnson in 2011 for $350 million.
Strategies for Product Launch
Ask, What problem are we solving?
Be very objective. Dont develop a technology and then try to find applications. I think
sometimes people develop a technology and they want to find a way of applying that
technology. Your technology may or may not be relevant. It may be interesting, it may be
different, but it may not be better. Ultimately, better for less is the best outcome when youre
developing a product.
Understand that youve only got one shot.
This is especially true if youre selling a retail product. If youre able to convince retail
sellers to sell your product, you have to make it work.
Sometimes good enough is good enough.
Often people will extend product development times or wait until everything is perfect before
bringing something to market. Youve got to be pragmatic and objective about where the line
of good enough is.
You need to develop processes that will allow you to produce in quantity maybe even
before youre finished developing the product.
When you play in the big leagues, they dont care whether youre a startup or not. They
expect you to deliver. You may still be developing your product, and so you need to have the
capacity to predictably develop, launch, and validate the processes and be ready well in
advance to ship those products. Otherwise youre going to lose your window.

31

HOW THEY DID IT

To build a business, you need to be in a rhythm of launching new products.
Start thinking about the next product launch and what product improvements youll make as
soon as your current product launches. Keep doing this to build momentum. Theres nothing
worse when youre starting up a business or launching a new product than to create
momentum and then shoot yourself in the foot. If youre able to stay on that wave, you
know, the momentum youve created with your first product, and keep iterating and keep
launching new ones, expanding your shelf space, expanding your consumer base, everything
works. It just feeds on itself
Be methodical about how you define your approach.
Think through how youre going to approach defining the price point, identifying the
customers needs, managing the project so that its ready to launch on time and then embed
those processes into your business.
You have to define a standard for yourself of being
excellent, and you keep living into it.
Its not about one event. Its continuous.
Three Rules to Follow
Rule #1 Define the customers problem.
Think about why the customer might be interested in an alternative solution to his or her
problem. This requires you to be very objective. Sometimes people imagine that the customer
has more problems than they really do. Be deliberate about what problem you are solving.
Rule #2 Determine whether or not there is a viable business solving that problem.
And also understand what it is that you would need to do to solve the problem. What features
would you need to incorporate in that product that would solve that problem? What price
point would the customer be willing to pay for that product?
Then, in turn, you use that, in the case of a price point, to understand what youre
manufacturing costs would be and what your distribution costs would be. That defines what
the engineering challenge is. You have to deliver a product that has these features, with a low

32

HOW THEY DID IT

enough manufactured cost. This requires you to work backward from what price youll be
able to get from the customer and understanding the costs and what your margin of profit
will be.
Rule #3 Develop a plan to launch your product.
This might even mean planning the launch of your product as youre continuing to develop
the product. Be disciplined in your planning and go-to-market strategy. This involves
questioning your distribution, marketing support, service or aftermarket support, and whether
you need sales reps. These are questions that need to be answered before you prepare the
launch of your product. Because if you get that wrong, if you have this great idea thats
solving an important problem for customers, and then you launch it poorly, your window of
opportunity may go away.

YOUR TURN
What problem will your product or service solve?

Can you build a viable business around it?

What systems do you have in place to identify your product launch plan? How will you
answer the questions of distribution, marketing, sales, and other issues?

33

HOW THEY DID IT

HOW ILL DO IT
In the following space, write down any creative ideas or inspirations you got from listening
to this session.

34

HOW THEY DID IT

Mark Tebbe - Developing a Strong Corporate Strategy
Mark Tebbe is the founder of two companies, Lante Corporation and Answers.com. Lante
grew from a two-person firm to an 850-employee NASDAQ-listed international corporation
and was acquired by SBI Group in 2002. In 1999, Mark co-founded Answers Corporation,
which went public in 2005 and was acquired in 2011 by AFCV Holdings for $127 million.
Mark is the founder of Techra Networks, a Chicago-based consulting firm that assists
companies in leveraging technology for their business needs.
Answers from Lante
Whats Your Price?
Everybody needs to have a number in his or her head and, ironically enough, its usually
a very even number. Some people say give me a million dollars and I would be happy for
life. Give me $2 million, $5 million, $10 million. Everybody has a number.
How can you stay off the treadmill?
The difficulty lies when your number is no longer enough. Lifestyle tends to climb in line
with what youre earning. Then youre on a perpetual treadmill of always having to earn
more and more to just be happy.
Why should you create a company?
Dont create a company to create an exit strategy. Create one because its what you believe
in and what you want to do. To be really successful, you have to think about how to do what
you like to do.
When should you exit the company?
Sometimes as youre running a company, other things in life become more important.
Sometimes youve taken a company as a far as you can take it, and you dont want to risk
your investors money by staying in. At some point, youll see the writing on the wall and
youll not feel it in your gut, and youll decide its time to change.

35

HOW THEY DID IT

Developing Your Corporate Strategy
1. Listen to the marketplace
You have to listen to what is in the market and the feedback that youre getting from your
customers, your potential customers, your competitors, your suppliers, and listen to it in an
unbiased manner. All too often, people are too quick to dismiss bad news or challenging
news as not accurate. We see a better way. You very well could see a better way, but you at
least should avail yourself of the knowledge that these people are sharing with you to make
sure and validate that indeed you are seeing a better way and that what youre doing is going
to be successful.
2. The team has to make a good decision.
The team is the one that makes the decision, not any one leader. The team has to work
together to make a good decision for all constituents in the business. It doesnt have to be a
perfect decision, though. Just a good enough one.
3. Dont give up.
If you decide to sell your business or if you decide to restructure financially, it gives you
opportunities that you didnt have before and allows you to pursue a totally refreshed or a
totally tangential strategy that you could not have done in the old structure. Or it totally frees
you of the burdens of the past and allows you to think freely as to how to conquer the next
phase.

YOUR TURN
Whats your price? What amount of money do you wish to have, personally, that would allow
you to live the lifestyle you wish?

36

HOW THEY DID IT

What do you enjoy doing? What are you passionate about? Can you envision doing this for
more than eight hours a day for years to come?

Describe a time when you failed to listen to feedback from your customers, prospects,
competitors, or other information in the market. What could you have done differently?

What would be a condition that could happen that might cause you to leave or restructure
your business?

37

HOW THEY DID IT

HOW ILL DO IT
In the following space, write down any creative ideas or inspirations you got from listening
to this session.

A good plan,
executed vigorously today,
is far preferable
to a perfect plan next week.

38

HOW THEY DID IT

Dave Becker Turning Vision into Business
David Becker is the founder of First Internet Bank, the first online
bank anywhere in the world, now boasting $500 million in assets. He is also the founder of
re:Member Data Services, acquired by Open Solutions; and founder of VIFI, which provides
Internet services to financial institutions. VIFI was acquired by Digital Insight Corporation
in 2002. David founded and remains actively involved as CEO of three other Indianapolisbased companies: OneBridge, a credit and debit card processing firm; DyKnow, a company
specializing in educational technology; and RICS, a firm he acquired and relaunched to
provide inventory control and POS systems.
Ideas to re:Member
Boredom can spark creativity.
Be sure and take time away from the day-to-day life in the office. When youre not dealing
with the running of the daily affairs of your life, the creative switch turns back on. You start
to think of creative ideas for your business.
Jump off the cliff.
Dont be afraid to make a bold move. As Daves grandfather said, No matter what happens,
they cant eat you. You will always survive. You dont have to do it alone, but dont be
afraid to take risks.
Take your team with you.
Develop a core team of people who have expertise in things you dont, and then bring them
with you from company to company.
Be the quarterback.
Ultimately, somebody has to make the tough decision. If option A isnt working, then find an
option B. Things change, and you have to be the one, ultimately, to make the decision to
change things. You have to make the call.

39

HOW THEY DID IT

Know the point of exit.
You have to be willing to walk away. If youre thinking you have to get the deal done, you
cant negotiate from a position of power. It wont be a good deal for either side at that point.

YOUR TURN
When is the last time you were bored? Did you find that your creative juices started
to flow? Plan another time when you can get away and do some creative thinking.

Do you consider yourself a risk taker? Have you ever jumped off a cliff? Is there a cliff
you wish you had the courage to jump off now?

When have you had to be the quarterback? What tough calls have you had to make?

When have you been willing to walk away during a negotiation? Is there a time when you
should have walked away but didnt?

40

HOW THEY DID IT

HOW ILL DO IT
In the following space, write down any creative ideas or inspirations you got from listening
to this session.

41

HOW THEY DID IT

Joe Mansueto The Four Keys to Advanced
Entrepreneurship
Joe Mansueto is the founder of Morningstar, which he took from a solo launch in an
apartment to global operations as a public company with revenues of approximately $600
million and 3,000 employees. Morningstar is a leading provider of independent investment
research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia, offering an extensive line of
Internet, software, and print-based products and services for individuals, financial advisers,
and institutions. In addition to Morningstar, Joes love of magazines led him to purchase Inc.
magazine, Fast Company, and Time Out Chicago.
Messages from Morningstar
You have to have enough confidence in yourself to trust your own judgment and not rely
on what others think.
Find a market that is viable and that you believe will increase 40-fold with your efforts.
The secret is a relentless focus on the product. Create good products, listen to the customers,
take their feedback, and then put it into the product. Always focus on improving your
product.
Invest back into the business. This gives you a huge advantage over competitors who have
investors or corporate parents drawing out funds. Put your own money into your products.
Marketing has changed. You can enhance and build an established brand through marketing.
But in these days of technology, the people will quickly see what the product is, and if it
doesnt measure up to your marketing, youve gone nowhere. You have to have a great
product and then build it by word of mouth. You cant create a brand through marketing.
To take your business to the next level, you need a team around you. Youve got to delegate
to them. Business is a team sport.
Dont give away your equity easily. If you give away your equity, youre going to give up
control at some point. Youve got to really value equity very highly.

42

HOW THEY DID IT

Four Keys to Advanced Entrepreneurship
Key #1 Study success.
Study the companies that are doing well. See what lessons you can learn. Read voraciously.
Read business magazines, read annual reports, go to conferences, surf the Internet.
Key #2 You have to reinvent yourself.
As you reach each new level of success, you have to learn new skills. How do you become a
global CEO? How do you take a company public? You have to reinvent yourself and your
skill set as you get more successful.
Key #3 You have to have a long-term horizon.
The real advantage of being an entrepreneur is the ability to think long-term. You have to
make investments for the long-term. You can make a decision that will make you look good
in the short-term, or you can do something that might depress your earnings a bit but is the
right thing for the company in the long-term. You always want to be making decisions that
in five years youll be happy you made. You have to be willing to endure some pain today for
greater good tomorrow.
Key #4 You have to go against the grain.
The only way youre going to do something great and something that stands out is to go
against the crowd. You have to be careful that there isnt a good reason no one else is going
that direction. But if you follow the crowd and do whats popular, it will be tough to stand
out.

43

HOW THEY DID IT

YOUR TURN
How often do you read about other successful companies? How can you increase the amount
of time that you devote to studying success?

Whats the next level of success for your business? What skills will you need to acquire to
reinvent yourself?

Have you ever made a decision that was painful in the short-term but paid off in the longrun? Have you ever made a decision that was easy in the short-term but hurt you in the
long-run? What other choice could you have made?

Describe a time when you went against the grain. What choices have you made that were
different from what was popular at the time? Is there a choice you can make now in your
business that is against the grain?

44

HOW THEY DID IT

HOW ILL DO IT
In the following space, write down any creative ideas or inspirations you got from listening
to this session.

FAILURE
can be a friend.

45

HOW THEY DID IT

Robert Jordan Lessons from Visionary Leaders

30 Takeaways
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.

Hyper-personalization is key.
Hyper-measurement and accountability are essential.
There are low barriers to entry, but still high barriers to success.
Be the outsider.
Treat your investors like customers.
Always have a hot standby.
Get your hands dirty.
Set yourself up for sacrifice.
Everyone should have equity.
Attitude comes first, not credentials.
Loyalty is key.
Nurture entrepreneurs on your own team.
Know your audience.
Technology is not necessarily about the technology.
Bring your customers inside.
Look for adjacencies and acquisitions.
You have to reinvest.
Seek new opportunities.
You have to define the problem.
Define an affordable solution, or there is no business.
Have a disciplined go-to-market plan.
Take your team with you.
Youve got to jump off a cliff.
The quarterback makes the call.
You have to read the marketplace.
Get to know your enemies.
Exit is not always final.
You have to study success.
You have to reinvent yourself.
Go against the grain.

46

HOW THEY DID IT

HOW ILL DO IT
In the following space, write down any creative ideas or inspirations you got from listening
to this session.

47

HOW THEY DID IT

We decided after writing the book to continue the conversation with entrepreneurs online. We
recommend that Nightingale-Conant listeners who want to see more content from us and
fellow entrepreneurs go to the website of the same name, at www.HowTheyDidIt.com.
Folks who would like to share their thoughts and answers from the workbook can email me,
bob@RedFlash.com.

48

Enhance Your Audio-Learning Library with

These Great Titles from Nightingale-Conant!
The Power of NO:
Negotiating Secrets the Pros Dont Want You to Know
By Jim Camp
26560CD
The Entrepreneurial Challenge:
Why This Is the Best Time to Start a New Business
& How to Find the Right Business for You
By Paul Zane Pilzer
25960CD
You, Inc.:
Creating Your Life as a Free Agent
By Terri Lonier, Guy Kawasaki, Dan Pink, Gail Blanke
and William Bridges
19800CD
Secrets of Superachievers:
Classic Lessons on Success from the Million Dollar Round Table
With Harry Dent, Jr., Captain Gerald Coffee, Brian Tracy, Lou Holtz,
John Powers
21080CD
The Living Faith Series:
Life-Changing Tools for the Growing Christian
By Bill Hybels, Haddon Robinson and Luis Palau
20401CD
Lessons from the Richest Man Who Ever Lived:
Incomparable Insights and Breakthrough Strategies for Success,
Happiness, and Wealth
By Steven Scott
23201CD
Scroll down to learn how to order these programs

49

All available from Nightingale-Conant at phone: 1-800-525-9000

or visit our website at www.nightingale.com
or for our UK clients
phone: 01803 666100 nightingaleconant.co.uk.

26570PG1-WCDR

Featured in

HOW THEY DID IT

Baskin, Bonnie
Bonnie Baskin is the
founder of two
companies, Viromed and
AppTec Laboratories.
She founded Viromed in
the early 1980s and built it from a
small, independent virology lab into a
nationally recognized leader in clinical
infectious diseases and industrial
biosafety testing. Following the sale of
Viromed to Laboratory Corporation of
America for $40 million, Bonnie spun
off the remaining medical device
services business as the newly formed
AppTec Laboratory Services. AppTec
expanded into services for
biopharmaceutical manufacturing and
was sold to WuXi Pharmatech in 2008
for $163 million. Bonnie serves on a
number of private and non-profit boards
and is a past president of MNBIO, a
Minnesota biotech association.

ROBERT JORDAN

Becker, David
David Becker is the
founder of First Internet
Bank, the first online
bank anywhere in the
world, now boasting $500
million in assets. He is also the founder
of re:Member Data Services, acquired
by Open Solutions; and founder of
VIFI, which provides Internet services
to financial institutions. VIFI was
acquired by Digital Insight Corporation
in 2002. David founded and remains
actively involved as CEO of three
other Indianapolis-based companies:
OneBridge, a credit and debit card
processing firm; DyKnow, a company
specializing in educational technology;
and RICS, a firm he acquired and
relaunched to provide inventory control
and POS systems for retailers via
the Web.
continued

Dolan, James
Jim Dolan is the founder
of The Dolan Company,
which he has guided
through a number of
business launches and
acquisitions to an IPO in 2007. The
Dolan Company now operates in 25
states and 53 product lines and employs
2,000 people. Previously Jim was
executive vice president of the Jordan
Group, Inc., a New York-based
investment bank specializing in media.
Trained as a journalist, he worked for
News Corporation, the Sun-Times
Company, and Centel Corp.
Soin, Raj
Raj Soin and his wife
Indu founded Modern
Technologies Corporation
(MTC), a provider of
engineering, management, and technical
services. They brought the company to
an IPO in 2002 and $500 million in
revenue before being acquired by BAE
for $425 million. Raj owns a number of
companies involved in manufacturing,
private equity investments, and real
estate development.

Mansueto, Joe
Joe Mansueto is the
founder of Morningstar,
which he took from a solo
launch in an apartment
to global operations as
a public company with revenues of
approximately $600 million and 3,000
employees. Morningstar is a leading
provider of independent investment
research in North America, Europe,
Australia and Asia, offering an
extensive line of Internet, software,
and print-based products and services
for individuals, financial advisors, and
institutions. In addition to Morningstar,
Joes love of magazines led him to
purchase Inc. magazine, Fast Company,
and Time Out Chicago.

26570BIO-1

Miller, Dane
Dane Miller is the cofounder of Biomet, an
orthopedics medical
devices company, which
grew from $17,000 in
sales its first year to annual sales
exceeding $2.7 billion. The company
had its first public offering in 1982 and
was taken private in 2007 for $11.4
billion. Dane began his biomedical
engineering career at Zimmer USA in
Warsaw, Indiana, moved to California,
and later returned to Warsaw to launch
and lead Biomet as president and CEO.
Shank, Stephen
Stephen Shank is the
founder of Capella
University, which he
took from inception in
1991 to IPO in 2006 as
one of the first online education
platforms in the world. Capella now
serves 35,000 students from all 50 states
and 59 countries. Prior to founding
Capella, Steve was CEO of Tonka
Corporation.

Sullivan, Brian
Brian Sullivan is the
founder of Recovery
Engineering, Inc., an
industry leader in the
design, manufacture,
and marketing of consumer water filter
systems sold under the PUR brand
name. Brian grew revenue to $200
million, took the company public in
1993, and sold to Procter & Gamble
in 1999 for $265 million. Brian went
on to lead SterilMed, Inc., a healthcare
services company that reprocesses
medical devices. He sold the company
to Johnson & Johnson in 2011 for $350
million.

continued

Tebbe, Mark
Mark Tebbe is the
founder of two
companies, Lante
Corporation and
Answers.com. Lante
grew from a two-person firm to an 850employee NASDAQ-listed international
corporation and was acquired by SBI
Group in 2002. In 1999, Mark cofounded Answers Corporation, which
went public in 2005, and was acquired
in 2011 by AFCV Holdings for $127
million. Mark is the founder of Techra
Networks, a Chicago-based consulting
firm that assists companies in
leveraging technology for their
business needs.

Tullman, Howard
Howard Tullman is
the president/CEO of
Tribeca Flashpoint
Media Arts Academy
and chairman/CEO of
HYPR>BOX, LLC. Prior to Flashpoint,
Howard founded a number of
companies, including Experiencia, Inc.;
Tunes.com, sold for $135 million; and
Certified Collateral Corporation, which
he took public. He was chairman of
Cobalt Group, acquired by ADP in
2010 for $400 million. In addition
to founding companies, Howard is
credited with the turnaround of Kendall
College, which faced liquidation.
Howard moved the college into a new
facility and engineered the sale to
Lauriate University. He is a trustee of
WTTW and of the New York Academy
of Art, and he serves as an adjunct
professor at Northwesterns Kellogg
Graduate School of Management.

26570BIO-2